Advertiser click-thrus 35% higher than last month! Traveler registrations hit over 100 per day!

You can't tell us there is a drop in travelers planning summer trips. We have the stats to prove they are planning! Last month, more conscious viewers, saw fewer Web Page Ads, but click-thrus soared. Driving motivated travelers to our advertisers websites, see what CT can do for your company.  Who were the advertising winners for March? Check out the CT Index.

We’d like you to meet Poor Alice, our online travel bookstore

From the beginning of Cultural Travels, we’ve planned an online bookstore where travelers can find books at the “point of impact” while researching the numerous tour companies we feature. That day has nearly arrived. Watch for Poor Alice, our secure, state-of-the-art bookstore to “go live” later this month. So, why introduce this service in an online market dominated by Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble? A couple of simple reasons: First, Poor Alice is dedicated solely to travel titles (2,600 of them), so browsers don’t have to wade through irrelevant lists to reach what they’re interested in. Second, Poor Alice uses our distinctive Theme/Destination (example: Culinary/Europe or Art/Asia) method to zero in on books. Oh, and some other things: Poor Alice is as secure, fast and cheap as the big boys.

75% of Leisure Travelers say war will not influence travel plans

According to a recent survey of 2,140 leisure travelers, conducted by Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell in March, only 7% canceled a leisure trip due to the war with Iraq and 75% said that the war will not alter their travel plans over the next 12 months. Their special website IraqwarPhobia.info also mentions that the “anxiety felt by leisure traveler’s diminishes almost in direct proportion with the prices they pay for travel services!” Combine that with the fact that now 53% of all leisure travelers look to the internet for deals, now is the time to take advantage of CT monthly email and list your Trips and Specials.

Peter C. Yesawich and Sheri Leigh agree

In The Cultured Traveler’s April Lead Story, Why Travel Today is Better Than Ever, CT’s President, Leigh said, “come summer, you’ll see a spike in travel and the beginning of a recovery in this beleaguered sector.” Peter Yesawich, Managing Partner of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell agrees that with a quick and successful end to the Iraqi war, we will see ”demand spike during the third quarter of 2003 and continue to rise throughout 2004. Marketing programs should be planned and funded accordingly.”  Now is the time to advertise and insure you get your share of the summer travel boom.

Keep an eye on AOL’s voicemail by e-mail technology

America Online (AOL) has been struggling lately as people have glommed on to how restrictive and old-fashioned its technology is. But even dinosaurs can learn new tricks, and the latest AOL offering is one to keep an eye on: For $5.95 a month, subscribers can pick up voicemail messages that have been call-forwarded to AOL. AOL converts the messages into MP3 audio files that recipients can play back on their PCs. This opens up a whole new way for people to receive messages. It also opens up a potential new way for you to contact your customers at times when they may not be near their phones but want to receive messages. Technology like this will give you an added chance to reach somebody you’re anxious to contact.

Luxury brands do well online – Remember, tours are luxuries, too

Interesting results from a recent survey by Unity Marketing: Affluent consumers buying luxury goods cited the Internet (44%) as very or somewhat important in influencing their buying decisions. This compares to articles and reviews (42%), newspaper ads (31%), TV programs and ads (28%) and magazine advertising (24%). When you think about it, this isn’t surprising: Internet use still skews to more affluent and educated households where the Web has been integrated into buying decisions. The ability to move around and look for comments on products and do comparison shopping is becoming second nature to habitual Internet users. How this works for you is that by presenting your company and its services online as attainable and desirable luxuries, you invite attention from exactly the knowledgeable, affluent people you’re seeking.

Online is a great place to reach business execs

Survey.com reports that its recent poll of 11,000 “C-level executives” (CEOs, CIOs, CFOs) shows that they are avid Internet users, with 53% logging on to the Web before they even leave for work. Fifty-eight percent of them use the Internet for research, and 48% click on ads when they see “something of interest.” This is good news for tour operators. Executives don’t just research job-related matters when they go online – many of them are looking around in the quiet hours before the workday officially begins for things like travel, luxury goods and other consumer items. We know what we’re talking about: The software we use to track visitors shows strong usage at the beginning of the business day on the East and West Coasts, as well as Japan and the UK.

Yuppies: There’s more of them and they’re increasingly diverse

Like ‘em or not, Yuppies (Young Upwardly Mobile Professionals) are increasing in numbers and diversity. The Media Audit says they now number 8 million, up from 7.4 million five years ago, and are more varied, with minorities (Asians, Hispanics and African Americans) constituting 34.6% of the category vs. 30.7% five years ago. Almost 69% of Yuppies earn more than $50,000 per year (41.3% earn more than $75,000; 21.3% earn more than $100,000). Here’s the money quote: “. . .collectively they travel more [than they did] five years ago.” Almost 47% have flown to another country at least once in the past two years, and 25.8% have taken two or more international flights within the past 24 months. Only 14.4% of all adults in the 85 metro markets The Media Audit surveyed had taken as many flights abroad. Yuppies have the means and the inclination to travel overseas – good news for operators who know how to appeal to them.

Our monthly factoids:

• Webmergers.com says that 4,854 dot-com companies have either been acquired or gone out of business since 2000. Bargain hunters have spent $200 billion picking through the remains.
   
• According to the Yankee Group, the three reasons Americans offer most often for not going online are “no computer” (28.5%), “no interest” (23%) and “don’t know how to use (15.4%). Reasons one and three can be overcome; reason two shows that there is an irreducible number of people whom you’re never going to reach online. 

• Cable and DSL providers added 11.25 million new subscribers in 2001 and 2002. There are now 17.4 million high-speed Internet users in the U.S. That number is projected to grow to 49 million by 2007. One obstacle: High-speed connections can be pricey – providers will have to drive down the price.  

Important Note - Thursday April 17 from 8-5 PDT the CT sites will be offline due to maintenance. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.